Cut beveled glass is used for decorative purposes in a variety of applications, such as, in windows, doors, tables and mirrors. Cut beveled glass is expensive due to the substantial labor involved in creating the bevel. In addition, the process used to produce cut beveled glass tends to weaken the glass. It is necessary for glass manufacturers to use thicker, more expensive, glass when manufacturing beveled glass to ensure the outside edge of the bevel meets minimum thickness standards. Consumers and glass manufacturers tend to avoid cutting bevels in a pane of glass because of the high degree of difficulty associated with cutting the bevel into the glass.
Tempered glass is widely used in commercial and residential buildings. Tempered glass is hard and brittle, which makes it difficult to create a bevel on an edge of the glass.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,192,905 to Scheibal describes a transparent strip of polymeric material used to imitate a beveled edge. The transparent strip has a wedge-shaped cross-section having an angle similar to a beveled edge. The transparent strip has adhesive on one side for affixing the strip to the glass to produce a beveled edge appearance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,840,407 to Futhey et al. describes an optical film for simulating beveled glass. The optical film has a structured surface for providing a simulated beveled appearance. The structured surface is formed of a plurality of spaced parallel grooves that form a plurality of facets that simulate beveled glass.
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M) sells a tape that creates the effect of cut glass when applied to a glass surface under the trademark Accentrim™. One version of the Accentrim™ product includes a tape portion and a liner or backing that is removed before the tape portion is applied to a glass surface to create the appearance of a bevel. 3M advertising indicates that the Accentrim™ tape can be used on windows, doors, cabinetry, entertainment centers, bookcases, mirrors and other furniture. A hand tool offered by 3M may be used to apply the Accentrim™ tape to a surface on an existing household item.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,202,524 discloses a glass workpiece locating system. The glass work piece locating system includes a stop that positions the glass workpiece substantially perpendicular to the direction of a conveyor. A sensor senses one of the side edges of the glass workpiece to determine the position of the glass workpiece.
The '524 patent also discloses, as prior art, a glass workpiece positioning system for a cutting table that utilizes an edge sensor for determining the precise location of the workpiece. A conveyor will transport a workpiece onto the cutting table into engagement with a stop, positioning the glass workpiece in an arbitrary location on the cutting table. An edge-detecting sensor will move across the cutting table until it has detected at least three edges of the workpiece. Detection of the three edges allows the precise orientation of the glass workpiece to be determined. The movement of the cutting head assembly is adjusted according to the specific positioning of the glass workpiece. The adjustment of the cutting head assembly generally requires a rotation of a coordinate system used to control movement of the cutting head to correspond to the orientation of the glass workpiece.